


Near Miss

by DevineMandate



Series: If Only [1]
Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Fluff, One Shot, Post-Lethal White
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 10:01:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21492481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevineMandate/pseuds/DevineMandate
Summary: Sliding Doors one shot take on Robin's phone call to Strike on her honeymoon. Shameless candy floss/cotton candy.
Relationships: Robin Ellacott/Cormoran Strike
Series: If Only [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151129
Comments: 12
Kudos: 49





	Near Miss

Strike finished one last beer and prepared for bed, pissed but not falling over, mulling over the evening he’d just spent with the Wardles.

The evening had been essentially pleasant, but with an unpleasant extrication at the end of it. Wardle and his wife had tried to set him up with a very pretty girl, Coco was her name. She’d been interested in him for some time, he knew.

Strike had very nearly given in to his base urges. His heart felt trampled by Robin going on her honeymoon (and after Matthew had been proven a two-faced twat several times over!), he was in an alcohol-fueled stupor at pretty much all times of day recently, and Coco was attractive and willing, if not exactly relationship material.

But it felt like a betrayal of Robin, a little, and he was embittered that he felt anything like this. Was her having sex with Matthew on their honeymoon a betrayal of Strike? Did she feel that way? Clearly fucking not.

Yet still he had decided not to get in bed with Coco. He turned down the offer of a nightcap or a future meetup, endured the hurt eyes in her pretty face for a moment, and moved on.

When he’d left the Wardles, he had thought about Robin all the way home, half bitter and half wistful. She’d be a little browner in the Maldives, and in swimwear half the time, and damn it to hell, wasn’t Matthew a right fucking bloody bastard?

He drunkenly, meticulously removed his prosthesis to settle down for the night. Climbing into bed and covering up, he thought he’d made a mistake tonight. If he’d taken Coco up on it, at least there would have been passing pleasure and fun and companionship, someone warm here instead of a cold bed and his brain senselessly battering his heart again and again with the knowledge that Robin wasn’t here, Robin was there, and with Matthew, and he was here, and drunk, and sad, and lonely. Damn it, he should have just…

His phone rang.

Curious, he reached out, saw a number with a strange prefix he did not recognize at all, and answered because even if it was a scammer or something, it would take his mind off of Robin and his fat, lonesome, loathsome self.

“Hello?”

“Cormoran?”

He was so, _so_ happy to hear her voice. In the first moment, he did not think of why she was reaching out or where from; he only felt his heart inflate with happiness at the sound of her. Tipsy, he did not keep the delight out of his voice and told the partial truth. “_Ro_bin! Was just thinking about you. It’s so good to hear your voice.”

“Cormoran, I...it’s good to hear your voice too, I...”

There was something off about her tone and hesitation. “What is it, Robin? Are you in trouble?” He felt half as drunk as he was as he prepared himself, ready to focus.

“No, I’m fine.”

“What is it, Robin?” he said again. Suddenly, he couldn’t say why, he felt in great suspense. It felt like he’d conjured her with his thoughts, like he’d fired a flare up to the heavens, and she’d seen it across the world and responded.

“Cormoran, I’ve been thinking…” She said the next part in a strange, broken rush. “I hope I don’t ruin this, us, forever, but I have to tell you, I’ve been thinking about you…about hugging you at the wedding. Pretty much the entire time I’ve been on this so-called honeymoon.”

Strike felt like a lightning bolt had been fired directly into his cerebrum, his eyes opened wide, his mouth sagged, and his thoughts flew in a thousand different directions, held together by the thought that this was happening, that she had felt it too, that it had _meant something_ to her the way it had _meant something_ to him.

“Cormoran, was it just me? If it was, I’ll never bring this up again, and I’m so sorry to have made things awkward at all, but was it just me?”

He was still too awestruck to respond, and she started to berate herself, “Oh, I’m so sorry, Cormoran, I feel so ashamed, I’ll never say anything again, I’ll…”

Not even to keep the business steady and functional would he hurt her this way. She’d opened the door and they couldn’t shut it; who knew what would happen now? But she didn’t need to suffer like this. “Don’t, Robin. Don’t. It’s okay. It wasn’t just you.”

There was silence at the other end of the line. The momentousness of the occasion hit him, plowed into him like a train. 

_Strike, you stupid bastard, you’ve ruined everything. Do you think things will just turn out right because you’re a daft moron who can’t stop thinking about her, and she’s fool enough to want a fat piece of shit like you?_

_Yes._

The lack of fear stunned him.

Her voice almost squeaked when she spoke again. “Really, Cormoran? Truly?”

“Really, Robin. Truly. It was profound for me, our hug, spiritual even, and you know I don't throw that word around.”

She sobbed loudly, and it hurt his ear, but he was smiling so much, it was like pain of any kind could not touch him. The things he could say to her now, that she might want him to say to her...

Robin controlled herself and slowed her breathing. “What do we do now, Cormoran?”

“Robin, I’m really not sure. Just come back to me as soon as you can. As soon as you can.”

“I will. I’m coming, Cormoran. This is all so fast...and so quickly after the wedding. I’m not sure I’d be ready to...to kiss you so soon or anything. I don’t want you to think I don’t want you that way, but I might need time to…”

She was silent for a bit, so he responded. “I understand. Don’t worry. It’s okay. I'm nervous about this too. All the time in the world. Come back to work, first, how about that for starters? And then maybe some night a few weeks or a few months or a year from now if we both still want to, you might like a fancy dinner? I think you have a green dress that might suit the occasion.”

She laughed and sobbed at the same moment. “I’m coming, Cormoran. As fast as I can.”

“I’m ecstatic about it, Robin. Over the moon. See you soon.”

“See you soon.” She rang off.

He looked at the phone as he put it down, marvelling at the seismic shift in his world from a two-minute phone call. Sleeping now would bring him closer to her by so many hours. There was so much to consider, but the central, essential joy dwarfed everything else right now. 

As he went to sleep, he thanked the heavens he hadn't brought Coco home. Who knew what might have happened if she'd been there?


End file.
